Employment in manufacturing and construction is recovering much more slowly than in the overall economy. The net change in employed persons was negative 20.8 million in April. Each month since then has had positive growth, but the recovery slowed in July and August. We have created a new summary chart for August to track the overall […]
The net change in employed persons in September was 661,000. Employment gains have slowed each month since June when 4.8 million jobs were recovered. The baseline against which future comparisons will be made is February 2020, the all-time high for nonfarm employment. Figure 1 shows the total number of people employed in the nonfarm economy. […]
Through October, manufacturing has added 742,000 jobs and construction 789,000 since the pandemic-driven crash in April. The baseline against which future comparisons are made in this analysis is February 2020, the all-time high for nonfarm employment. Figure 1 shows the total number of people employed in the nonfarm economy. Table 1 is designed on rolling […]
Steel Market Update is please to share this Premium content with Executive members. For information on upgrading to a Premium-level membership, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Nonfarm employment is improving, but made back less than half the losses seen in the two months of March and April in the four-month period from May through August. The August jobs […]
The September jobs report was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday and failed to meet the consensus expectation. September’s net gain was 661,000. The average monthly gain in the four months May through August was 2.7 million. In the September data, the July gain was revised up by 27,000 and August […]
The economy added 638,000 jobs in October, exceeding consensus expectations, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Expectations were for a gain of 600,000. In the October data, the August gain was revised up by 4,000 and September was revised up by 15,000. Of the job losses in March and April, 10,090,000 are still unemployed. Figure […]
Census Bureau data for downstream steel product shipments lags, but supports AISI data for crude steel production. The Census Bureau provides monthly data on manufacturing inventories, shipments and new orders for total U.S. manufacturing and for individual industries, one of which is steel products. Therefore, the Census Bureau provides a useful reality check for steel […]
The U.S. consumer’s confidence in the present situation has deteriorated drastically in response to the pandemic. The composite value of consumer confidence in August, reported by The Conference Board, was 84.8 with a three-month moving average (3MMA) of 91.6. The 3MMA has decreased from 130.4 in February. This indicator is quite volatile, therefore the moving […]
Nonfarm employment rose by 1.7 million in July, but from May through July has made back less than half the losses of March and April. The July jobs report was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday and slightly exceeded analyst’s expectations by adding 1.8 million jobs. May’s job gain was revised up […]
The primary metals sector is looking much worse than manufacturing as a whole in the employment picture. The net change in employed persons was negative 20.8 million in April, positive 2.7 million in May, positive 4.8 million in June and positive 1.8 million in July. Table 1 breaks total employment down into service and goods-producing […]
Mill shipments and supply of sheet products began to turn around in June. This analysis based on steel mill shipment data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and import-export data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The analysis summarizes total steel supply by product from 2008 through June 2020 and year-on-year changes. The […]
The analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of six flat rolled products into the district of entry and the source nation. We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about local import volume is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis is to describe in detail what is going on in a […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to share this Premium content with Executive subscribers. For more information on how to upgrade to a Premium subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. July was the ninth consecutive month where imports were down by more than 20 percent compared to the same month last year, according to the latest Commerce Department data. […]
In three months through June, total construction expenditures had negative growth for the first time since November 2011. SMU Comment: Data in this report is not adjusted for seasonality. We remove this effect by considering only year-over-year data. Total construction contracted by 0.6 percent in June as a result of a 2.6 percent contraction in […]
Construction is slowing but still has positive growth driven by state and local building and infrastructure expenditures. Privately funded work is contracting. In August, construction expenditures were at an all-time high. Steel Market Update analyzes the Construction Put In Place (CPIP) data to provide a detailed description of activity that accounts for about 45 percent […]
In 12 months through June, China’s steel production exceeded one billion metric tons for the first time. Figure 1 shows annualized monthly global steel production on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis and capacity utilization since January 2000 based on the updated OECD capacity data. Capacity utilization in June on a 3MMA basis was 75.3 […]
Global steel production contracted by 6 percent year over year in the three months through July as China’s steel production expanded by 6 percent to another all-time high. This data comes from the World Steel Association (WSA), which defines crude steel as “steel in its first solid (or usable) form: ingots, semi-finished products (billets, blooms, […]
Global crude steel production expanded for the first time since February in the three months through September. This data comes from the World Steel Association (WSA), which defines crude steel as, “steel in its first solid (or usable) form: ingots, semi-finished products (billets, blooms, slabs), and liquid steel for castings.” Figure 1 shows annualized monthly […]
U.S. gross domestic product had negative growth in every region of the country in the first quarter of 2020 following four quarters when every region had positive growth, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data. The BEA reports GDP by state and region on a quarterly basis. This data is released several weeks after the […]
The U.S. share of global scrap trade has been increasing since Q1 2016 and in Q1 2020 was 23.3 percent. This is a quarterly analysis that SMU performs using data from the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB) in the UK. Some nations are slow to report, which results in the analysis being two months […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to share this Premium content with Executive-level members. For more information on how to upgrade to a Premium subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. On a percentage basis, the North East and New England suffered the worst job losses in the first half of 2020. The full force of the pandemic-led job losses […]
Since the severe pandemic-led job losses of March and April, all regions and all states have seen some level of recovery, though not on a uniform basis. The recovery in Michigan has far exceeded that of Texas, for example, a reversal of what is considered the normal employment pattern. Comparing September to April on a […]
The U.S. dollar weakened against 14 of the 16 steel and raw materials trading nation currencies in the last 90 days, which follows a decline against nine in our June 14 report. The biggest change was in the value of the Australian dollar, which was up by 9.3 percent in three months. The only currencies […]
The U.S. dollar weakened against 14 of the 16 steel and raw materials trading nation currencies in the last 90 days, which follows the same decline that we reported July 14. The biggest changes were in the value of the Australian dollar, which was up by 11.4 percent, following a 9.3 percent appreciation in our […]
Total rolled product imports in June were down by 25.4 percent on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis, year over year. This was the eighth consecutive month in which imports declined by more than 20 percent compared to the same month last year. This early look at June’s import volume is based on Commerce Department […]
Steel Market Update presents a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look at Commerce license data to a detailed look at volume by district of entry and source nation. This report is designed to plug the gap between the two. National level import reports do a good job of measuring the overall […]
Construction expenditures continued to show a positive but slowing year-over-year growth in May of 1.4 percent, non-seasonally adjusted. Because of the momentum that exists in most construction projects, steel consumption is likely to decline more slowly in building than in manufacturing. Steel Market Update analyzes Commerce Department Construction Put In Place (CPIP) data to provide […]
The U.S. economy added 4.8 million jobs in June, exceeding analysts’ expectations once again, according to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. May’s job gain was revised up by 160,000 to 2,699,000. Figure 1 shows the total number of nonfarm workers in the U.S. since 1990. The net loss since February’s all-time […]
Manufacturing and construction both saw positive growth in employment in June. The net change in employed persons was negative 20.8 million in April followed by positive 2.7 million in May and positive 4.8 million in June. Table 1 breaks total employment down into service and goods-producing industries and then into private and government employees. Most […]
In May, China’s crude steel production hit 92.3 million metric tons, an all-time high, despite the coronavirus pandemic. On June 24, the OECD released its updated report of steel production capacity by nation: “Global steelmaking capacity (in nominal crude terms) decreased from 2015 to 2018, but the latest available information (as of December 2019) suggests […]